Epic Christmas Baking

Getting ready for our epic Christmas feast, Littletree and I spent the day baking. See – I knew it would be a bad idea to introduce her to baking; now she’s hooked. And the worst part is she can read the recipes herself now. Oh, what have I done!?

First things first – making gingerbread dough… because that is the first step in the creation of a gingerbread house.

The dough turned out nicely, and left to sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Meanwhile… we made tiramisu

I love tiramisu, but it’s quite a process to make it all from scratch – lots of different mixing bowls and layers to prepare, but it’s always worth it.

Once that was in the fridge to set, we got out the gingerbread dough and started rolling it out. We discovered a great tip – roll the dough between sheets of baking paper.

I found a nice stencil online for the house shapes, but it was so ridiculously not to scale… that turned into a nice geometry lesson; Littletree had to get out a ruler and calculate the measurements and angles.

Then we discovered that the best way to cut the shapes and transfer them onto the baking tray was to actually leave the dough sandwiched between the sheets of baking paper and cut it out with scissors. Works a treat, and easy to put right onto the baking tray as-is!

After the shapes were baked and cooled, we had the epic mission of making up royal icing (epic because in the humidity, my icing sugar had solidified into a solid rock and I had to grind it by hand with a mortar and pestle back into powder form.

And then came the assembly!

After a quick lesson on how to properly handle an icing bag and nozzle, I stepped aside and let Littetree have at it.

Despite a few sticky accidents learning experiences, she got the hang of it, and the gingerbread house was made beautifully, complete with a cat on the roof.

For some reason, I never took a photo of the finished product… but none of it would have been possible if not for AquaCat coming round to do all the dishes

All set for an epic feast!

Christmas Popcorn

Littletree is pretty excited to be celebrating Christmas this year – she decided to decorate a tree, so we found a fallen branch outside and set it up for her to decorate

We don’t have all that much in the way of decorations, and not much of a budget to buy any, so we took a tip from my lovely friend Gramma Miri (who makes the most amazing custom-made Spirit Hoods) and made Popcorn Garlands to decorate around.

The first step being, of course, making popcorn

But as these things do with Littletree, everything turns to science. She observed the popcorn popping, and wanted to know how it works. YouTube delivered some fine slow motion shots of popcorn popping, which, of course, led us down a slow-motion videos rabbit-hole

But we did eventually make it back to popcorn, and naturally there has to be quality control.

Rigorous scientific testing of every aspect of the popcorn…

Littletree finally stopped eating long enough to actually thread some onto string and make garlands

yay!

And it looks great on the tree

Tiramisu Divine

Littletree and I decided to make a surprise for Aquacat’s 44 1/4 birthday – Tiramisu with fresh organic whipped raw cream and my home made coffee and orange liqueurs.

First squeeze 1/2 cup of orange juice... well, squeeze all the oranges, and take out 1/2 cup for the tiramisu, and serve the rest to Aquacat while she’s having a lie-in.

 

Then brew 2 cups of strong coffee and mix with the OJ, set aside to cool.

Slightly whip 300ml cream (well, slightly less than 300ml cream, because the container wasn't completely full).

Separate 3 eggs, beat the yolks together with 1/3 cup caster sugar till it's pale and thick, then whip in the cream and 250g Mascarpone cheese. (Yes, I use an original 1967 SwiftWhip hand beater for this, because I'm just that cool)

Whisk the egg whites till they are forming soft peaks, and then gently fold into the cream mixture.

Now take out the coffee and OJ - pour in a healthy shot of coffee liqueur and orange liqueur (about 1/4 cup of each). Quality control is important here, make sure the liqueurs are good all the way to the bottom of the bottle (adult supervision is vital for this step; kidlets aren’t allowed).

Then soak in Savoiardi sponge biscuits - let them soak up loads of the liquid and then line the base of a serving bowl or deep tray with them.

Then you layer - a layer of soaked savoiardi; a layer of cream mixture. rinse repeat. Well, don't actually rinse. You should get three layers, finishing off with cream mixture.

I grate chocolate slivers onto the top, but you could top with anything - a dusting of cocoa, chocolate-coated coffee beans... or just dunk your face right into it.

Cover and leave to set in the fridge for a couple of hours, and then...

NOM!

Aquacat was ecstatic

And the taste… mmmmmmmmmm

Spring Roll-out

Since we just celebrated the Vernal Equinox, and have unrelatedly been learning about culture along the Mekong River, Littletree and I decided to make fresh Spring Rolls.

Starting with making some fillings – we took fresh veggies, chopped finely with some pre-cooked rice noodles.

Then Littletree had the task of spooning little portions of the filling into rice paper pastry sheets and rolling them up

Eventually we had a feast’s worth – don’t they look pretty!

Then into the wok

Littletree handled the frying admirably

And the end result – a huge stack of awesome

Mmmmm they smelled so delicious

But the final test was in the tasting, and Littletree is a very fussy food critic. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a comment from her, as she didn’t pause in stuffing her face with the spring rolls for long enough to get a word in.

Later, she did wax lyrical about how amazing they are, and begged me to promise we’ll make more soon. Yum!

Happy Spring!

Faerie Mischief

I’m sorry to admit that Littletree has picked up some terrible habits from me. I know, I know! I should have known better than to give her such bad examples; I should have known that she would see me and want to copy.

But I was weak, and I let her see me… baking. Oh the shame! And it wasn’t just once or twice… I made cakes and muffins and cookies and puddings and pies; but I didn’t stop there! Oh no! The horror of it is that I even let Littletree help me some times.

Imagine my dismay to come into the kitchen to find her standing at the oven with a measuring cup and whisk in her hands! I rushed in to stop her, but it was too late… chocolate and butter were already melting on the stove, eggs were cracked, flour sifted.

What could I do? I figured, if she’s going to start experimenting with baking, she should at least do it with me, here in the home, where I can supervise her and answer her questions. Far better that way than to have her out in the streets, trying cakes from unknown bakeries – those places are nefarious with their free samples of sugar-coated pastries that get you hooked.

So I helped her make brownies. Don’t judge! I know there’s a lot of evidence to show brownies are a gateway cake that just leads to gateaux and tortes, but I think we can keep this under control.

And she seems so happy in the kitchen. MMMMM brownies!

Since we’ve been having trouble with pesky pixies lately hiding things about the house, and inspired by The Spiderwick Chronicles, Lady Demelza suggested we make a tea party for the faeries and give them sweet offerings of brownies and other delectable treats.

Littletree loved the idea and set about making a beautiful table setting out in the faerie garden

We made cute little offerings around the garden of brownies for the brownies and honey on crackers for the pixies

And then enjoyed a most luscious afternoon tea – brownies, fairy juice (elderflower cordial), fruit tea, ginger beer, cheese and crackers

Hopefully that will restore some order to the house, so we can get back to baking!

I’m makin’ waffles!

Littletree has been begging asking to make waffles, so we decided to get a waffle iron. After a full day traipsing around every shop we could find that might possibly stock waffle irons, and finding only a massive assortment of specialised appliances for things that don’t need a specialised appliance – there was a brownie-maker, a cookie-maker, a cupcake-maker, even a hot-chocolate-maker! But no waffle iron, ironically waffles are the one thing you actually need something to make them with.

So we went online. I found on eBay a gorgeous original 1970s retro Breville waffle maker… so very funky! But also out of my budget, so we settled on a cheapo one and waited for delivery…

Thankfully didn’t have to wait long! Littletree was ecstatic!

We found a recipe that’s simple enough for her to make herself and that we can get all organic ingredients for – after discussing at length the ins and outs of separating eggs so one can whip the whites, and what happens to the egg protein when it’s whipped.

Seems everything turns into a science lesson with this kid!

But the end result… mmmmmmmm

Served with fresh, local raw cream, maple syrup, and bacon! So glad we have a local organic butcher!

The darkest day of the year

Happy Solstice to all! Here, where the world is upside down and we live in the future, it’s the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year. Or the longest night of the year, depending on how you look at it.

We rugged up warm – it’s about as freezing as I can bear it! Only 21°C (69.8F) today! We lit the fire, and we prepared a special feast – fresh fish, prawns, hand-cut potato wedges and a big salad.

Yum!

Cheesecake

Purple stumbled across an interesting recipe for Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars and we thought we’d give it a whirl…

Only, _Graham crackers_ aren’t something commonly gotten in Australia, and even managing with the best available substitutes, “a packet” is not a standard unit of measurement, even in the US, as far as I could determine from googling.

So, using the recipe as inspiration, we made something completely different.

Dulce de Leche is also something not so easy to come by, and it’s an expensive specialty item… lucky for me, I know you can take ye olde tin of homebrand sweetened condensed milk, and simmer it (the whole, unopened tin) in a pot of water for about 2 hours – make sure to keep topping up the water so it doesn’t boil dry, et voila! Dulce de Leche!

So start with a few digestive biscuits of some variety. Chocolate Tiny Teddy biscuits work, and I imagine Tim Tams would would really well. Crush up enough biscuits to make about a cup of biscuit crumbs, blend in a couple spoons of sugar and enough softened butter to make it kind of hold together, in a crumbly sort of way. Press this into a 20cm square pan and bake in the oven 160C for 10 mins. Take it out of the oven to cool.

Meanwhile, blend a couple of tubs of cream cheese in the food processer, then add in half a cup of sugar and a couple of free-range eggs. Lick the spoon liberally. Then we added in a small splash of vanilla extract and – the secret weapon ingredient; home made coffee liqueur.

Spread the Dulce de Leche onto the cooled biscuit base, and then pour the cheesecake filling on to that. spread it carefully, and pop it back into the oven for 50 minutes. Then you have to wait for it to cool, but you can occupy yourself with licking the bowl and making sure the home-made coffee liqueur hasn’t gone bad.

For the final topping, make ganache – heat cream till boiling, then pour into a bowl with an equal weight of broken up chocolate, whisk till the chocolate is fully melted in and creamy. Spread a thin layer of this on top of the cheesecake and refrigerate for a while (how long it takes to watch an episode of Firefly and finish off the coffee liqueur should be enough).

Ready to cut and serve!!! OMG soooooooo good

Homemade Harvest

The past month has been such a frenzy of homemade awesomeness. Harvesting yummy veggies from our garden

Including cassava so we can make our own cassava chips (as well as so many amazing delicacies)

Amazing, delectable, organic, home made cherry liqueur, which tastes like an explosion of fluffy bliss bubbles in your brain

Hannukah Sufganiot

Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream made from local, raw, organic cream, and served with my organic, raw macadamia and honey ice cream

Gingerbread yoni cookies made by my neighbour

And last, but not least, a local farm stall gave us a massive box of “seconds” tomatoes for only $2! What to do with such a tomatoey abundance?

Tomato Chutney!

In between the moments of madness, there’s been SO MUCH AWESOME!

I love eating locally, I love eating food that we grew ourselves, I love making from scratch all the things that even our grandmothers have forgotten how to make :)